


Dangers of Experimentation

by acme146



Series: Fading Scars [14]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Experiments, Gen, Little Person Character, Luna's mother's death, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 10:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11552844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acme146/pseuds/acme146
Summary: Luna loves her sons fiercely. But little Lysander is going to turn her hair white...





	Dangers of Experimentation

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for mention of miscarriages. I will go into the pregnancy aspect of the other female characters, but sadly miscarriage is a real part of building a family. If anyone is worried about it, feel free to scroll down through the first few paragraphs.

“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.”   
―  **Cormac McCarthy** ,  **All the Pretty Horses**

            After two miscarriages, Luna was ready to give up on having children of her own. She wasn’t particularly fussed about it either way, and Rolf agreed. They started looking into adoption, but before they could even start the process, Luna became pregnant again.

            This time, Luna was determined to do everything right. She stopped work entirely, went swimming with Ginny and Ron, and did as little as possible. Rolf hovered over her too, and as the months went by and nothing was wrong, they began to relax.

            Then they went to the Healer for a check up.

            The Healer did an examination. She was cheerful until she waved her wand over Luna’s belly. Then she frowned in surprise.

            “That’s odd…”

            “What?” Rolf held Luna’s hands tightly. “What’s wrong?”

            “Your children are healthy, Mr. Scamander,” the Healer said quickly.

            “Children?” Luna asked, feeling a little dazed. “Are they—”

            “You’ve got twins coming,” the Healer said with a smile.

            “Wouldn’t we have seen that before?”

            The Healer’s smile faltered. “Well, that’s what is a bit odd. I didn’t notice the second fetus until now because they’re not quite the same…size.”

            “Is one of them too large?” Rolf asked in surprise.

            “No,” the Healer replied. “One of them is quite small. That fetus is likely going to be a little person.”

            “What exactly does that mean for their health?” Luna asked.

            “Oh, they should be alright,” the Healer comforted her. “They’ll just be small. If there are any complications, we can help with that.”

            Luna smiled at Rolf. “We’re having twins,” she whispered.

            “Yes we are, Moonlight,” Rolf said. He leaned down and kissed her.

            When the twins were born, Lysander was indeed very small, and Luna did worry, just for a second. But she could hold him close, fit both twins comfortably in her arms, and really that was all that mattered.

            She spent a year at home, caring for her boys and watching them grow. Lorcan seemed to take it for granted that his brother was smaller than him, and Lysander never let his size stop him from doing what he wanted.

            It was that inquisitive mind that worried Luna most. Lysander got himself into scrapes quite a bit (to be fair, he mostly got himself out) trying to follow new trails or try out a new spell. Luna kept her wand on her at all times and tried to keep as close an eye as she could. But she had to go back to work, and she and Rolf switched off on child care, and so both of them missed things.

            Lysander was eight on the worst day.

            Rolf had taken Lorcan to the Muggle zoo, but Lys had a bit of a cold, so Luna stayed home with him. She decided that making cookies might cheer up her groggy son. She was about to put a pan in the oven when she heard a loud bang, followed by a frightened cry.

            Luna whirled and _ran_ to the workshop, where she and Rolf kept all of their notes, all of their findings, all of their specimens...Lysander was lying on the ground, eyes wide. There was shattered glass all around him, but miraculously he hadn’t been cut. He started to cry when he saw her. “Mama!”

            “Mama’s here,” Luna sobbed, frightened, _terrified._ “Stay there, darling!” She looked wildly around the room, hoping Lysander hadn’t let anything out. But no, everything was still caged, even the Cornish Pixies (why hadn’t they let them out already?) She dashed towards her son, heedless of her bare feet. “Mama’s got you,” she gasped. “Mama’s right here.”

            Lysander buried his face in her chest and she clung to him, weeping. She could feel him still warm, still moving, _not like Mum, not like Mum, it’s not the same bang, it’s NOT…_

Lysander looked up at her with Pandora Lovegood’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Mama!”

            “Hush,” Luna whispered. She was definitely bleeding, a piece of glass stuck in her heel, and Lysander hated blood. She guided his head back into her shoulder. “It’s alright, darling. Just give Mama a moment, alright?”

            Lysander stayed like that as she sank into a chair in the living room, legs shaking too badly to go any further. She waved her wand, gritting her teeth as the glass came out and her foot was bandaged. She’d gotten very good at those kind of spells. Rolf, though an excellent tracker, was horrible clumsy.

            She leaned back and sighed, her precious bundle shifting in her arms. “Mama?”

            Luna tried to pull herself together. “Lysander, what were you doing in there by yourself? You know Mama or Daddy has to be in there with you.”

            Lysander bit his lip. “I’m sorry. I wanted to try something with glass!”

            Rolf’s mother Nadeen had raised her children in Egypt after her husband’s death. The consensus there was that wizarding children should be encouraged to practice their magic when they were underage in order to control it better when they were older. Luna found the idea refreshing, but she and Rolf had agreed that there had to be strict supervision when the twins were experimenting.

            “What were you trying to do?”

            “I wanted it to change colour. I tried it on an empty container, I promise! I didn’t want to accidentally change an animal blue!”

            Luna cradled him close again, trying to stop her tears. “Darling, you can’t do that alone. Bad things can happen when you’re alone experimenting.”

            “I wanted it to be a surprise,” Lysander confessed. “I’m sorry.”

            “I know you are. But you must never do it again.”

            A tiny hand reached up and brushed a tear from her cheek. “Mama, why are you so sad? I’m okay.”

            “You might—you might not have been.” Her mother hadn’t been. She’d lain still and cold, unable to hear her young daughter’s screams to wake up. There was no goodbye, nothing.

            “Lysander,” Luna whispered. “Promise me something.”

            “Okay.”

            “It’s the same promise I made to your Dad, and to you and your brother when you were born, though you might not remember.” Luna looked her son in the eye. “Promise me that you will consider the consequences if something goes wrong.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Think about how you would find home again, if you get lost. Think about what you say, as if it was the last thing you said to that person. And think about how you will…how you will heal, if you get hurt. You can’t just run off and do whatever you want when you have people who love you, who depend on you, okay?”

            Luna was sure that Lysander didn’t understand fully. He couldn’t, this child who grew up with aunts and uncles who had never made that promise, who’d dashed into danger because it was the right thing to do. She’d joined them once. But the first time she was lost in the jungle because she’d wandered off alone, she understood the depth of what it meant to make that choice when it wasn’t life or death. When it didn’t _have_ to be.

            You could let the creature get away, wait to test the spell. You couldn’t always get back home to your family.

            Lysander, of course, didn’t understand. And that was okay. For now, his repentant “I promise, Mama,” would have to do.

            After all, they had cookies to bake.

**Author's Note:**

> I promise Lysander is not going to die in an experiment. He has Charms to teach.   
> In the mean time, I must announce with great sadness that Victoire is no longer the token straight. I have succumbed. Tune in next week to find out why!   
> Cheers,  
> Acme


End file.
